1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a console box provided inside a vehicle's compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A console box is placed between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat in a vehicle. The console box typically includes a rectangular parallelepiped box body and a lid that is hinged to the box at an end (for example, at the rear end). The interior of the box body is used for storing small articles. The lid includes a plate and four side walls surrounding the plate, which define an open storage space. The rotation of the lid with respect to the box body around the hinge opens and closes the box body.
There is a demand for an effective usage of the space defined by the lid of a console box. Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 58-113562 discloses such a usage of the space inside the lid. As shown in FIG. 8, a console box 100 according to the above publication includes a box body 101, an outer lid 102 that has a U-shaped cross section and an inner lid 103. The inner lid 103 is placed between the box body 101 and the outer lid 102. The inner lid 103 divides the space defined by the box body 101 and the outer lid 102. This allows the space on top of the inner lid 103 to be used for storing small articles in addition to the space in the box body 101.
The above console box 100 is opened by two different actions. The first action, opening the outer lid 102 together with the inner lid 103, opens the box body 101 and permits small articles to be placed inside. A second action is to open only the outer lid 102. This permits the space defined by the outer lid 102 and the inner lid 103 to be used for storing small articles. These two different actions require two different opening operations and switching between the two actions is complicated. This has created a need for a console box that uses the interior of the outer lid 102 and is simply operated.